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I installed my Clipper Creek charger a couple nights ago, and I don't know how anyone could get by long term with only a level 1 charger. Wiring was easy as I had an unused 8 AWG line from my old electric stove. I extended it with 10AWG to the garage and swapped out the 40A breaker for a 20A one since the CC unit has 12AWG wiring. If you have access to a 3D printer, there's also a great holder for the plug available on thingiverse:  Pardon my crappy garage wall.
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Jun 26, 2014 14:07
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Madurai posted:The motorized door handles seem to be the early reliability complaint leader on the Tesla. Prescient! My passenger door handle no longer opens the door from the outside. Harry Tuttle came and took it back to the Burlingame service center.
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Jun 26, 2014 21:11
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Madurai posted:Prescient! My passenger door handle no longer opens the door from the outside. Harry Tuttle came and took it back to the Burlingame service center.
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Jun 26, 2014 22:44
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Hillridge posted:If you have access to a 3D printer, there's also a great holder for the plug available on thingiverse: Do you have a link to the Thingiverse and/or any recommendations for a place to order 3D prints for delivery? That looks like it'd be handy to put up on my wall.
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Jun 27, 2014 02:50
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https://www.thingiverse.com That was hard.
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Jun 27, 2014 03:31
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Hillridge posted:I installed my Clipper Creek charger a couple nights ago, and I don't know how anyone could get by long term with only a level 1 charger. Wiring was easy as I had an unused 8 AWG line from my old electric stove. I extended it with 10AWG to the garage and swapped out the 40A breaker for a 20A one since the CC unit has 12AWG wiring. How'd you set up your garage? Can you pull in either direction? I'm really curious how other people have theirs set up for some reason. I have mine right in the middle of the wall next to a window. I could park forward, backward, outside in front of the door or outside the window and run the cord through that. Possibly overkill.
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Jun 27, 2014 03:45
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Godholio posted:https://www.thingiverse.com THE thingiverse. I can't find that pattern there.
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Jun 27, 2014 04:02
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http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:154452
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Jun 27, 2014 04:07
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It's based off of that one, but this is the one I printed: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:230595 If you want, PM me and I'll send you a few for whatever shipping is (small flat rate box should be ~$5 or so.
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Jun 27, 2014 04:52
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Advent Horizon posted:How'd you set up your garage? Can you pull in either direction? I have a one car garage with enough room for 2 cars in the driveway in front of it, and 2 to the right of it in the dirt. The EVSE is just inside the garage door on the left. If I park in the garage (not likely) it would reach, if I park right outside the garage, it'll reach, if I park in the first spot in the dirt, it might reach, but it would be pretty close.
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Jun 27, 2014 16:23
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Hillridge posted:It's based off of that one, but this is the one I printed: I have a friend trying to get some time in on the maker bot where he works. If that doesn't pan out, mind if I bug you for one, as well? It's one of those forehead slapping why didn't I think of that things that I didn't even know I needed. Also, they guy who made the design wants $48 for them. 
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Jun 27, 2014 16:33
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After driving a poo poo ton of EVs, my conclusion is that their interior is always cheap and poo poo even if the OEMs other cars have nice interiors.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:36
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I like how they feel obligated to tack on other green poo poo just because it's an EV, like interior made of recycled garbage.
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Jun 28, 2014 00:00
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Only filthy hippies buy these newfangled electric vehicles, they feel at home in garbage. Glad my Leaf is covered in the skin of animal, like a normal human.
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Jun 28, 2014 03:29
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This is the first vehicle either of us have ever owned without vinyl seats. It feels plenty luxurious to me.
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Jun 28, 2014 06:20
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Not sure if hybrid talk is right for this thread but speaking of interiors, what about the Lexus 200ct? It's just a Prius which has been tarted up with a nice interior and gadgets, and different suspension from what I can tell. Not sure if I can live with a car that takes over 10 seconds to reach 60, on the other hand my commute maxes out at 35 so I just don't need the power on a daily basis. Anyone drive one yet?
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Jun 28, 2014 15:57
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I have one and I love it. It certainly won't win any races but my commute maxes out at 45-50 mph and it's mostly city. I probably spend half of my commute on electric alone. I get about 35-36 in the winter (mostly so the engine can provide heat) and 44-46 in the summer. A lot of criticism comes from the price tag for being, what you said, basically a Prius re-skin but I like it and it's not as recognizable as a Prius so you avoid a lot of the "hurr hippy prius owner" mentality. Don't get the nav package though since it's total poo poo and it has the typical Lexus/Toyota nannying where you can't do anything to it while you're moving. Compared to the Leaf/Tesla the electric motor is weak as hell but it's good enough to scoot around neighborhoods and parking lots. EV mode disengages at 25mph but, like the Prius, it can go on EV power up to around 45mph. ijustam fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 17:57
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Sten Freak posted:Not sure if hybrid talk is right for this thread but speaking of interiors, what about the Lexus 200ct? It's just a Prius which has been tarted up with a nice interior and gadgets, and different suspension from what I can tell. Not sure if I can live with a car that takes over 10 seconds to reach 60, on the other hand my commute maxes out at 35 so I just don't need the power on a daily basis. I keep eyeing these up, but on the used market they're still just a bit too pricey I think. Lexii seem to have very good residuals in Canada. I do like the idea of a deluxe hybrid hatchback though. ijustam posted:I have one and I love it. It certainly won't win any races but my commute maxes out at 45-50 mph and it's mostly city. I probably spend half of my commute on electric alone. I get about 35-36 in the winter (mostly so the engine can provide heat) and 44-46 in the summer. Cool, nice to hear positives about it. I've driven a base model Prius and actually kind of liked it, but the interior is kind of dull and cheapish. I guess you need to look at the price difference like choosing an Audi over the equivalent VW. I am a sucker for a nice interior. Finger Prince fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jun 28, 2014 |
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Jun 28, 2014 19:20
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Advent Horizon posted:This is the first vehicle either of us have ever owned without vinyl seats. It feels plenty luxurious to me. Yeah this is the first vehicle I've owned that's less than like 10 years old, never mind the current model year (for another couple of weeks), it feels deluxe as gently caress to me
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Jun 29, 2014 02:38
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MrYenko posted:I have a friend trying to get some time in on the maker bot where he works. If that doesn't pan out, mind if I bug you for one, as well? Sure, I can print up a few this week. I'll check and see what we have for materials and colors tomorrow.
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Jun 29, 2014 14:42
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ijustam posted:I have one and I love it. It certainly won't win any races but my commute maxes out at 45-50 mph and it's mostly city. I probably spend half of my commute on electric alone. I get about 35-36 in the winter (mostly so the engine can provide heat) and 44-46 in the summer.
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Jun 29, 2014 15:04
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It isn't bad, but it isn't great either. I'd say it's a bit better, if not comparable, to the Mazda3 (my previous car). Which reminds me, I'd say the CT has less usable space than the Mazda3. I think this is primarily due to the batteries taking up a bit more room. On the plus side there's no drive shaft tunnel (unlike the 3 which is AWD in Japan). More things I remembered: EV mode, by the way, can be picky and cryptic as hell. Sometimes you'll be on EV power and try to put it into EV mode and it just won't let you. If the batteries are too low (<45% I believe) it'll tell you but it also won't let you if the engine is too cold (but it won't say that, it'll simply say "not available.") I love the brakes on it. You don't use the pads until you get near a stop (or you need a lot of braking power like in an emergency), so normal braking is literally all regen. If you pay attention you can feel the pads apply (in EV mode you'll probably hear the brake assist pump run as well). I use a ScanGauge II with some x-gauges (gen 3 Prius codes) to show me the amp draw and heavy braking off the highway can pull in over 100 amps (other fields I show are battery state of charge, engine water temp, and gallons-per-hour). "B" mode on the dash will induce engine braking and force the engine to run so I don't recommend its use unless you need it (I like to use it during spirited driving, it basically emulates engine braking after downshifting). Cruise control is badass. It will induce engine braking to maintain speed down hills. I went down some mountains (the kind with truck runaway ramps) and it was holding me at speed using nothing but regen until the batteries got fully charged and it started using engine braking to maintain speed. Totally awesome. It has three driving modes, which I believe are in the Prius as well: Eco, Standard, and Sport. The most it does is remap the throttle position so eco makes the car slow as hell but it also tunes the AC down as well (which is really useful now since it's hot as hell and the AC can pull up to 10 amps, killing your battery, mostly if you're in stop and go, forcing the engine to run to generate charge. Standard is just that. Sport mode, according to the sales guy increases the available voltage but I think that's a load of BS, basically makes the throttle more responsive and the steering tightens up a bit. One of the neat things about the CT is it has a settings menu (unsure if the Prois has this). You can change when the tach shows up (always on, just in sport mode; however it's impossible to show the tach while on cruise), when the doors lock, the dash lighting, whether or the "EV" indicator shows up (redundant if you always use the tach), misc stuff like that. Nice to play with at first, but once I found the settings I liked I pretty much never go back in. The energy gauge is pretty useful:  The first third (solid line for ECO) means you can run on pure electric no problem. The dashed line is electric only in EV mode (otherwise the engine will kick on in this range). You can be in power on EV mode but you run the risk of the car taking you out of EV mode due to excessive acceleration. Otherwise in the range the engine will run about 2.5-4k rpms. poo poo for fuel economy, obviously. As an aside, the dash computer is optimistic. On my current tank it says I'm averaging 46.4 mpg, but in reality it's probably closer to low 45s. I have around 1/4th of a tank left after 320 miles. That was kind of rambly, but bottom line is I think this car is great, but I'm not sure what it has that the Prius doesn't. You can probably get a lot of features cheaper in a high end Prius, but the CT is a nice entry-way into luxury-spec cars without destroying the bank. I wish it had the solar roof/remote AC option of the Prius. That's probably the biggest downside in my opinion. ijustam fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jun 29, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 17:24
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Having managed to do a pretty good job of mullering the Clio's piston rings, I decided to change my Renault with a broken engine for a Renault without an engine for me to break. Picked this up yesterday: Renault Zoe, in Dynamique Intens trim, metallic white. I was going to hold off on buying one, but a pretty good deal came up a short distance away (I asked my local dealer to match it, and they couldn't get within £3k of what I'd been quoted), so I took the plunge. I'm pretty busy for the next couple of days, but when I get a chance I'll post more photos and details, as well as my developing thoughts on the car (I've only driven it about 40 miles so far).
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Jun 29, 2014 21:07
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Holy poo poo. The electrician just quoted me $800 to install a 240v outlet, running to my subpanel about 3 feet away, on a 20amp circuit. The subpanel has plenty of juice to spare, so no need to run it to the other side of the house for the main panel. Is that normal? I knew electricians were expensive, but jesus. He also wants to charge me $599 for a $395 Clipper Creek charger, installed. I know that I'll be buying and mounting the charger myself now, but is it worth shopping around for another electrician, or is everyone going to charge me that much?
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Jun 30, 2014 00:41
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Doom Rooster posted:Holy poo poo. The electrician just quoted me $800 to install a 240v outlet, running to my subpanel about 3 feet away, on a 20amp circuit. The subpanel has plenty of juice to spare, so no need to run it to the other side of the house for the main panel. Is that normal? I knew electricians were expensive, but jesus. He also wants to charge me $599 for a $395 Clipper Creek charger, installed. So $800 for the instal + $599 for the charger? That's a bit ridiculous. That's a real easy install to do yourself. For a pro it should take under an hour and <$50 in supplies.
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Jun 30, 2014 02:10
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Doom Rooster posted:Holy poo poo. The electrician just quoted me $800 to install a 240v outlet, running to my subpanel about 3 feet away, on a 20amp circuit. The subpanel has plenty of juice to spare, so no need to run it to the other side of the house for the main panel. Is that normal? I knew electricians were expensive, but jesus. He also wants to charge me $599 for a $395 Clipper Creek charger, installed. Man, I'm looking at $5-$10 thousand if I want a stage2 charger installed. The whole breaker panel will need to be replaced (it doesn't have 40A of spare capacity and it's impossible to get new breakers for it, since the company that made it hasn't existed since the 80s), and then appropriate wire run the entire length of the house (split-level, through a mix of unfinished basement, finished basement with acoustic tile ceiling, and fully finished rooms) and then into the semi-detached garage. And possibly a service upgrade on top of that, since the house only has 100A service. Thankfully my intended use patterns mean I can get away with just stage1 charging from a 15A wall socket.
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Jun 30, 2014 02:20
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Yikes. That sucks. I've got 40 amps to spare on my main panel, but that would require running from the other side of the house, through to the garage, which would definitely be pricy. My Volt can't even take advantage of a stage 2 charger though, so opting for the stage 1 run from the subpanel. If/when EVs really take off, and we see more major tech advances re: charging, I may take the pluge on a better charger, but no use for it now though. Hillridge posted:So $800 for the instal + $599 for the charger? That's a bit ridiculous. Yeah. Going to shop around for some more quotes at this point. I feel bad that the dude already came out, did an audit on my power usage, and mathed out what I could put in there safely, but he's not going to get any money from me, but I'm just not down with dropping that kind of change on something that should be so much cheaper. I have full respect for electricians being skilled labor, that should be well-compensated for their expertise, but $1000 for about an hour of work is absurd.
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Jun 30, 2014 02:57
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Why are you ordering the EVSE through the electrician? I think I paid a bit over $700 to have mine installed about 5' from the panel. That included the $100 for a city permit (that the electrician had to call in for an inspection before 7am) and all materials including a meter mount. I don't know how typical my setup is, but we have a second meter to get the evening charging rate. It took a bit over 2 hours to get everything in and inspected. I was surprised at the amount of work required, honestly, even re-using an existing breaker.
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Jun 30, 2014 03:23
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I could be wrong, as I've never had to hire an electrician (it's legal to do your own work here). If you're fishing through walls I could see the cost rising, but if you're just adding a conduit run to a sub panel it's a $2 project box, $1 of conduit, maybe $3 in connectors, $10 for wire (maybe more if you oversize), and a $20 breaker. If you know what you're doing, check with your town and see if they let you pull your own permit.
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Jun 30, 2014 04:20
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Doom Rooster posted:Holy poo poo. The electrician just quoted me $800 to install a 240v outlet, running to my subpanel about 3 feet away, on a 20amp circuit. The subpanel has plenty of juice to spare, so no need to run it to the other side of the house for the main panel. Is that normal? I knew electricians were expensive, but jesus. He also wants to charge me $599 for a $395 Clipper Creek charger, installed. I have a similar setup and I think I paid 30 minutes of labor and materials for an electrician to install my Clipper Creek. It was ~$100 + $35 for permits. I bought the charger directly from Clipper Creek.
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Jul 1, 2014 01:45
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Doom Rooster posted:Yikes. That sucks. I've got 40 amps to spare on my main panel, but that would require running from the other side of the house, through to the garage, which would definitely be pricy. My Volt can't even take advantage of a stage 2 charger though, so opting for the stage 1 run from the subpanel. The Volt has the advantage of running off a generator for sure, but I'd never have a pure EV without a higher stage charger. The tech for crazy chargers is already there, it just needs to be vetted in standards and regulations. The next step is to really reduce the reliance on chargers. I dropped a package off this weekend in a sleepy summertime college town. Some dude was on the main drag in a Volt peeling out, getting to the end of the street, turning around and doing it again. It was one of those modders with 'This car gets 1000mpg, ask me how!' on the back. I think he was trying to advertise but the place was a ghost town. Really weird.
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Jul 1, 2014 06:37
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My Leaf has arrived at the dealership! I should be driving it by the weekend.  Still grumpy they don't make the grey interior anymore, though. E: it's here! 
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Jul 1, 2014 15:49
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The 240V plug I have in my garage is a NEMA 6-30, and apparently the EVSE upgrade plug is a NEMA L6-30. I'm having a hard time finding an appropriate adapter; does anyone have any suggestions?
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Jul 6, 2014 00:48
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Boten Anna posted:The 240V plug I have in my garage is a NEMA 6-30, and apparently the EVSE upgrade plug is a NEMA L6-30. I'm having a hard time finding an appropriate adapter; does anyone have any suggestions? Replace the socket? It should be a direct replacement, no harder than changing any other electrical socket, and at least here a L6-30 socket is under $25 out the door. I'd probably take more time prodding with my multimeter to be absolutely sure I had the right circuit turned off than it would actually take to change the outlet. Two screws to remove the cover, two more to release the outlet from the box, and three wires. Installation is the reverse of removal (I wince a bit saying those words after many bad Haynes experiences, but it's true in this case). The reason you're having a hard time finding adapters is that the L in L6-30 is for locking. It's the style that twists in to the outlet so it can't be pulled out inadvertently. An adapter to make something the manufacturer thinks should lock to the outlet not do so would probably be a liability concern.
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Jul 6, 2014 02:07
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Or just buy the one-ended adapter cable the EVSE Upgrade guy sells and buy a plug for your outlet at Home Depot. Put the two together and make your own adapter; those DIY plugs are super easy.
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Jul 6, 2014 04:42
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Advent Horizon posted:Or just buy the one-ended adapter cable the EVSE Upgrade guy sells and buy a plug for your outlet at Home Depot. Put the two together and make your own adapter; those DIY plugs are super easy. That's what I'm having a hard time figuring out. What plug do I even buy at Home Depot? I've changed wall sockets before and most of these adapters are surprisingly expensive anyway; I may just go with wolrah's suggestion.
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Jul 6, 2014 16:26
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This might not be the right thread but I've been considering leasing a CR-Z because the pricing seems to be very good right now. I'm wondering if anyone here has considered how it stacks up against other hybrids during their search?
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Jul 6, 2014 19:06
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Test drove the e-Golf the other day. It was excellent. Great to have adjustable regen braking as well. You move the shifter sideways to select three leves of regen. Then if you pull it towards you, you get a fourth level with a lot of regen. Perfect for long downhills. If it's braking a little bit too much, just give it a bit of gas. Is this common for all EVs?
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Jul 6, 2014 21:47
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Ola posted:Test drove the e-Golf the other day. It was excellent. Great to have adjustable regen braking as well. You move the shifter sideways to select three leves of regen. Then if you pull it towards you, you get a fourth level with a lot of regen. Perfect for long downhills. If it's braking a little bit too much, just give it a bit of gas. Is this common for all EVs? Volt has a "low gear" detent that provides more regen with no brake input. I'd really like something like what you describe, though.
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Jul 6, 2014 21:53
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Ola posted:Test drove the e-Golf the other day. It was excellent. Great to have adjustable regen braking as well. You move the shifter sideways to select three leves of regen. Then if you pull it towards you, you get a fourth level with a lot of regen. Perfect for long downhills. If it's braking a little bit too much, just give it a bit of gas. Is this common for all EVs? It's electronically selectable in the Model S with either a mild or aggressive setting.
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Jul 6, 2014 22:24
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